Movie #14 of 2017: The Dark Tower (2017) This movie was pretty fun – not great, but far better than the Rotten Tomatoes rating would suggest. Very cool to see things like gunslingers and North Central Positronics on the big screen after so many years. For fans of the Dark Tower novels, it was largely …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
Book #163 of 2017: The Gunslinger by Stephen King (The Dark Tower #1) It’s probably been a good decade or more since I last read this book, and I was surprised to find it better than I had remembered. I still stand by my usual advice for the Dark Tower series, which is that you …
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TV Review: Party Down, season 1
TV #28 of 2017: Party Down, season 1 If you don’t enjoy The Office or Veep’s brand of awkward humor, then this is probably not the show for you either. But it’s a pretty hilarious sitcom about an LA catering crew largely made up of struggling actors, and there are so many famous guest stars …
Book Review: Finders Keepers by Stephen King
Book #162 of 2017: Finders Keepers by Stephen King (Bill Hodges Trilogy #2) This second novel in Stephen King’s Bill Hodges trilogy presents a more interesting case than the first, even if the detective and his partners feel largely extraneous to the story. The principal conflict centers on a villain who killed a famous author …
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Book Review: Room by Emma Donoghue
Book #161 of 2017: Room by Emma Donoghue A masterful story from the point of view of a 5-year-old child who’s spent his entire life in a small shed with just his mother and occasional visits from the man who kidnapped her. Author Emma Donoghue excels at conveying Jack’s perspective of his world in a …
Book Review: Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes
Book #160 of 2017: Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes Drawing on interviews with over 100 campaign insiders and political allies, Shattered offers a fly-on-the-wall perspective of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as she faced off against first Bernie Sanders and then Donald Trump. It’s an interesting look at …
Book Review: The End of the Day by Claire North
Book #159 of 2017: The End of the Day by Claire North This novel was a bit of a departure for author Claire North, and I have to admit that I didn’t care for it as much as her earlier books. There’s definitely stuff to enjoy here as North sends the Harbinger of Death out …
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TV Review: Game of Thrones, season 1
TV #27 of 2017: Game of Thrones, season 1 We’re watching this show for my wife’s first time and as my first rewatch after catching the seasons basically as they aired. (I believe I binged season 1 just before season 2 started, then watched live from then on. But I’ve never before gone back and …
Book Review: Star Wars: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray
Book #158 of 2017: Star Wars: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray An outstanding story of star-crossed lovers in the Star Wars universe, following a pair of Imperial cadets (one of them later a Rebel) as they weave in and out of the major events of the original film trilogy. This is obviously a novel that …
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Movie Review: Snakes on a Plane (2006)
Movie #13 of 2017: Snakes on a Plane (2006) It’s hard for me to be objective about this movie, or to say anything new about it. (The closest I’ll probably get on this viewing is to note that the Julianna Margulies character is about to go off to law school, and it’s pretty hilarious to …
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